My First Craig in Sabine Parish, Louisiana

I grew up in a small town in northwest Louisiana. The community is heavily populated with descendants of Spanish soldiers and the Native American women who married them. Common surnames for the area include Rivers (del Rio), Manshack (Manchacha), Ebarb (Ybarbo), Sepulvado, Remedies (Ramirez), Garcie (Garcia), etc…I think you can get the picture! My maiden name is Craig and for as long as I could remember, I wanted to know where we came from.

So, on that first trip to the library I searched books for possible Craigs that were in the area. I found a few, but I was new and at that moment I couldn’t connect them to my dad and my grandfather. Then it was onto the census records! I worked backwards searching for my grandfather’s family. Once I found his parents I was able to continue searching until I found my 3rd great grandfather James Craig Sr.

James Craig was my first ancestor to live in Sabine Parish, Louisiana. I found him on the 1840, 1850, 1860 and 1870 census records. It took a few years to determine his birthplace because the wonderful censuses listed N. Carolina in 1850, N.Y. in 1860 and New Jersey in 1870! After a few years, I realized I should check the census records of his adult children. The children all listed their father as born in New Jersey! BINGO! 


A more recent discovery is that James Craig Sr. was military and was sent to Ft. Jesup, Louisiana. While in Louisiana he was promoted to sergeant in 1823 and he was discharged in July 1825. After this discovery I did a search of military records for James Craig in New Jersey. There were three James from New Jersey who enlisted. The first one enlisted for five years in 1818, another enlisted for five years in 1819 and the last James enlisted for five years in Aug 1820.  He was from Salem County, New Jersey, he was sent to Ft. Scott, Georgia and I have read in an online article that when the fort closed the soldiers were sent to Arkansas. It's easy to imagine that once Ft. Jesup was built, that some of the soldiers sent there could have easily come from there. I am still looking for records that will prove my theory that James Craig Sr. was from Salem County, New Jersey. He is my brick wall and I have been searching for his parents for over 23 years.

 http://www.exploresouthernhistory.com/fortscott2.html
http://www.arkansasties.com/Sebastian/FortSmithOne.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Jesup
Please feel free to comment and let me know if you have any suggestions for breaking down this brick wall.

 Thanks for reading and happy hunting!
Ruth

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